Came in from the Wilderness
by Oparu
Summary: Snow and Regina wait out a storm in the cabin. Family fluff, with hints of maternal Regina and Snow never giving up.


"I could teleport us home," Regina says. The rain drums on the window, rattles the roof and makes the fire hiss. It envelopes them and the cabin, wrapping them in cold and grey. Even in summer, the storm brought a chill and it lingers.

"You'd have to come back for the cars," Snow says, puttering over the fire. "Or we would. It'll let up soon." She looks up, satisfied and waves Regina over. "Come, sit."

Rumplestiltskin's former cabin was too crowded when Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella were all here, but now it surrounds them like a cathedral, vast and empty. Regina half-expects her footsteps to echo. They don't.

Snow pays the floor beside the fire and takes off her own coat, hanging it over a chair. "The wood was drier than I thought and your fireball really got it going."

"Of course it did,"

Snow smiles at her, somehow content, even with the wind wailing outside. "Must be nice to start a fire so easily."

"Now? Yes," Regina answers. Removing her coat adds to the strange feeling of vulnerability, as if she's trapped. They could go home at any time. this is just long enough for them to warm up. "However, it took months to learn and was very unreliable at first."

Snow leans against the legs of the chair, her face bright and full of interest. "Sounds like there's a story there."

"Several." Regina flips her hair back over her shoulders, wishing it would dry. In front of them, the little fire blazes merrily, throwing heat and light. They stare into it for awhile, warm and quiet.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me about learning magic."

Regina turns her eyes from the fire, wanting to see Snow's face. "Why would you want to hear about that?"

"I've always wondered what it was like. What it felt like to have that kind of power." Snow shivers, and her eyes gleam. "I used to watch your mother, when she thought I wasn't there. I could feel the magic build, in layers, as she cast her spells. I don't know what she was doing."

"Nothing good," Regina reminds Snow before she can romanticize something she shouldn't. Cora's magic was based in rage and bloodlust. Her spells hurt everyone."

"Magic doesn't have to be like that." Snow shakes her head and then rolls her eyes and that gesture is so familiar Regina could be looking into a mirror. You and Emma have done incredible things with magic, you can heal, and you've saved us, over and over."

Shaking her head, Regina rests her hands on her knees. "You find it fascinating."

"Are you really surprised? Even when you were trying to kill me with it, I still-" she pauses, and her smile grows, "-I still wished I could have asked you what it was like, holding fire in your hand, or turning a guillotine to water. You can do such amazing things."

"David mentioned that?"

"You saved his life, at the time, that was very suspicious behavior."

Regina chuckles and she relents. Snow's always loved her stories and they have time. "When I was learning magic, my fireballs fizzled more than half the time I tried to throw them. Maleficent called them pathetic."

"She did?"

"Oh she was appalled, of course. Though, when we met, she was in not position to criticize as her own magic was entirely absent."

Snow turns her gaze from the fire. "That can happen? Without that cuff or another object, I mean."

"Magic is emotion," she says, and Cora's voice echoes in her memories. When Cora spoke of magic, it was all mysteries she wouldn't share. Secrets that lit up her face that she'd tell Regina someday. Now she understands that learning magic would have broken Cora's control, made her able to resist, to stand up for herself.

"Has yours ever gone away?"

Regina raises her eyebrows and turns her eyes quickly from Snow's far too patient face. "No, I'm always angry."

"Regina–"

"What?"

"You're not angry now, I know you. You've been through, well, literally the Underworld, but I was going to say Hell, and you're not driven by anger any more."

Calling the fireball to her hand, Regina stares at the quaint little blaze in the fireplace and wonders how much bigger she could make it, just with her anger in this quiet moment. Snow, however, only looks at her with wonder, with that boundless affection.

"It's always here."

Snow reaches for the hand holding the fireball and it dies immediately, freeing Regina's fingers to be wrapped in Snow's warm grasp. "So is the good, and I know you don't see it. I know how hard it is for you. I want you to know that I see it, that I think I've always seen it, even when I didn't want to, and until you believe, I'll believe enough for both of us."

Stroking her cheek, Regina stares at her, her heart drumming like the rain, insistent, cold and terrifying. After everything they've been through, after all that she's done, Snow believes in her, genuinely and without restraint. Like Henry. Tugging her close, holding her tight in front of the fire, Regina looses herself into the hug as much as she wraps Snow in her arms. Here it's quiet, warm, and safe.


End file.
